An “ecosystem” is a collection of entities and components linked together through communications and data flows. Ecosystems are controlled by both internal and external factors.
A “social media ecosystem” is a place to present the “wants” and “needs” of a person in social, career or leisure activities, for the benefit of that person and others, and for other individuals and businesses that feel that can satisfy any of the person's wants or needs.
“Social commerce” is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist in creating social connection as well as the online buying and selling of products and services in a social media ecosystem.
In many instances it is desirable for a person to send a personalized gift to another person for a special occasion such as a birthday, anniversary, death, etc. However, it is often difficult to know or determine a person's personal preferences, such as size, color, type, etc.
It is also desirable for a person to send a charitable contribution on behalf of another person to a desired charity or cause. However, it is often difficult know or determine a person's personal preferences for desired charities or causes.
It is also desirable to help a person who is in a time-of-need to due to a life event such as a death, job loss, natural disaster. However, it is often difficult know or determine if a person is in a time-of-need and how the need can be met or satisfied.
There have been many attempts to solve some of these problems associated with assisting a person satisfy his/her wants or needs including many different types of gift registries.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,577,841, that issued to Lyren teaches “One embodiment is a method that monitors, on the computer, activity of a member of a group to build a profile of the member. The profile of the member is used to generate recommendations for gifts that the member wants to receive to celebrate an event. The method then transmits the gifts to a website so other members of the group can select one of the gifts to purchase for the member.”
U.S. Pat. No. 8,224,714, that issued to Yost teaches “Methods and computer storage media for communicating an electronic gift suggestion for a first user to a second user are provided. Accessing an online social network profile for a first user created by the first user in an online social network. Determining one or more gift suggestions for the first user and displaying the one or more gift suggestions in the online social network account of a second user. In some embodiment, the gift suggestions for the first user may be based on the social profile of the first user, based on the social profile of the first user utilizing an electronic gift wish list, or based on sales data of purchasers having similar personal information and purchasing history as personal information accessed from the first user's social profile.”
U.S. Patent Published Patent Application No. 2013/0073430, published by Gallen et al. teaches “Systems, methods, and computer program products capable of facilitating gift giving are disclosed. The social media contacts of a consumer may be identified. Personal information may be stored for the social media contacts. The consumer may enter gift criteria for the social media contacts, and based on the criteria, it may be determined that a social media contact should receive a gift for a particular occasion. A gift may be automatically purchased and sent to the social media contact on behalf of the consumer.”
U.S. Patent Published Patent Application No. 2009/0234755 published by Sidoruk teaches “he invention relates to a web based gift selection and ordering System comprising a web-based interface for Sender interaction and the entering of data; a database to store and allow access to that data; AI software to act upon that data to determine the appropriate gift; and a portal to e-commerce vendors on the internet to purchase the gift and have it shipped to the Recipient.”
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0119947 published by Lin teaches “The present invention provides a gift recommending method and system. By the parameters input by the consumer, and using the powerful computer system and Internet connection, the worldwide members can register or the non-members can surf the present system. According to the preplanned database, the gifts can be recommended after the items that meet the input parameters of the consumer are found in the database, and the consumer can select the specific item from the recommended list. The database includes various product catalogs provided by the factory owners in each region for being selected by the consumer or recommending gifts after the consumer inputs the parameters. The system can inform the provider in the mailed region appointed by the consumer to send the selected gift to the receiver. By the interactions among the system of the present invention, the consumer and the factory owner, the consumer can buy the gift needed by the receiver in a more convenient and economic way.”
However, none of these solutions solves all of the problems associated with assisting a person satisfy his/her wants or needs in a social media ecosystem. Thus, it is desirable to provide a method and system for searching and contributing via social commerce within a social media ecosystem.